Offering a curbside click and collect pickup process that enables your customers to check-in by phone so that your store associates can locate and bring them their order will help you to increase sales, drive loyalty and improve your click and collect/BOPIS operational efficiency.
But key to reaping all the benefits of this service is making sure you drive the maximum number of customers to check-in for your service through simple, clear and compelling signage.
This blog covers our method for creating just that. For more in-depth ideas and insights, download our full guide to signage:
Click here to download our retail signage guide
The formula
The image here shows our formula we use for creating effective contactless click and collect signage that drives customers to check-in.
The Qudini formula for highly effective contactless curbside pickup signage
We’ll start by explaining some of the key copywriting considerations you need to think about to build this formula.
To get the ball rolling, here are some examples of effective click and collect check-in signage using our formula:
Learn more about curbside click and collect.
Naming your new service
Put pen to paper
Throughout all your signage content it is essential to be clear, bold and consistent in how you talk about your new process.
So, to start with it helps to put pen to paper and to define a name for your process.
Some example names to get you thinking:
- Curbside pickup
- Contactless collection
- Qudini pickup
- Swift collect
Feel free to incorporate the Qudini brand name
You might find that it helps explain the process to customers. With more of our clients incorporating the Qudini brand name into their customer facing content, consumers are becoming increasingly educated on the process and are even referencing Qudini in social media:
Naming tips
When defining a name for your new service offering ensure that you are:
- Clear and relevant – use a name that clearly explains what the process is and the benefit it offers to your customers.
- Simple – the most important thing is that the name explains what you do without over-complicating it.
- Unique and on brand – to own a name that is uniquely yours, it can be good to incorporate your brand name or the Qudini brand name in some way.
- Consistent – use the same name with consistent spelling and formatting across all your content referring to the process.
Creating compelling call to action statements
After defining the name for your service, it helps to think about the one CTA you want customers to take in relation to that service.
Using clear and compelling CTA statements throughout your signage is essential to driving your customers to take the actions you want them to.
Some example call to actions to get you thinking:
- Tell us you’ve arrived
- Check-in here
- Here to collect an order? Check-in
Call To Action tips:
- Big and Bold – Your CTA should be the biggest and boldest piece of text within your signage. When your customers glance at your signage, this should be the first thing they see.
- At the top – Placing your CTA at the top of a sign ensures it strikes customer attention and drives them to action from the outset.
- Relevant and explanatory – The CTA statement should be relevant and should clearly describe the action the customer should take and what they will get by taking action. E.g. “Scan to join the queue”.
- Use verbs – Motivate the customer to action by using verbs to make your call to actions more authoritative. Action words have been proven to boost CTA compliance.
- Service name or questions can triage – If the service you are using Qudini for is only for customers with specific shopping missions or meant to speak to a subset of customers with specific challenges, you might like to prefix your CTA with your service name or a question that will effectively triage customers before informing them of the action they should take. E.g.
- Missions specific. Here to collect an order? Check-in here.
- Challenge specific: Hate standing in line? Join the virtual queue
Defining your value proposition
The next step to defining your offering involves writing a simple value proposition statement that explains your new Qudini service within a single declarative statement.
Doing this will bring clarity to what you are trying to say to customers as the value proposition will inspire the key content across your signage content.
What is a value proposition
Within a single sentence your value proposition should:
1. Explain the service and process you are offering.
2.Be clear as to why your customers should use it through the benefits it offers.
- Collect your order without even leaving your car by checking in from your phone when you arrive.
- Check-in from your phone when you get to store and we’ll bring your order to you, whether you’re in-store or at our curbside.
- Check-in to let our store team know when you’re here to collect your order and they’ll bring your order to you straight away
Use icons and simple images
Using clean and simple images that visualize what the Qudini service is, it’s benefit and the action that your customer needs to take to use it can really help to explain your offering and to nudge the customer to take action.
We’ve included some example images on the next page and you can even download the Qudini icon kit and use our suggested images across your content.
Nudge images
Our clients saw QR code scan rates double when they incorporated the QR code within an image of a phone scanning the QR code. This effectively served as a nudge to explain to customers the action that they needed to take.
Clarify your customer journey
Defining the customer journey steps that a customer will need to go through once they follow your Call To Action is also a helpful process for creating extremely clear signage.
These process steps can then be alluded to within your content or you might choose to include a simplified list of these process steps as subtext within your signage.
In addition, you may wish to add a few notes to answer customer queries, such as; what do to if they don’t have a phone or how you will use their data.
Download our signage planning canvas pack
A signage planning canvas for creating effective signage for Retail Choreography solutions.
Maximize who will read your steps
When writing your customer journey steps, remember that people tend to ignore text. So keep the steps as simple as possible and live by the power of 3 where possible.
Inject your brand tone of voice into your steps to make them engaging to read and follow.
Collect your order from your car with 3 simple steps.
Some ideas for customer journey steps:
1.Scan a QR code, text 074929292 or use our tablet kiosk.
2.We’ll notify a colleague immediately.
3.Stay updated by phone while you wait.
Now bring it all together
Now that you’ve defined your key messaging, it’s time to put it all together to create striking signage that captures customer attention and drives them to action.
On the right we’ve listed the key pieces of content that you’ll now have created in part one and the best order to place them within across your signage. On the next pages we’ve mocked-up examples of how this could look for the different Qudini solutions and included some client examples.
You don’t have to use all elements and you could also change the order of these elements (except the Call To Action which is always best placed at the top).
Ensure a relevant and effective content cadence
When writing your signage out, think about the priority of things that your customers need to do and know and put your content in this order on your sign. To capture customer attention, start with the most important details that inform the customer of the action they need to take before explaining the why and the how in more detail.
Inform customers using your order confirmation email
If you’re using Qudini to offer contactless click and collect services to your customers, a great way to inform your customers of the service and to enable them to check-in is to include a link to check-in via your order confirmation email letting them know that their order is in store.
Major UK electronics retailer Currys PC World has done this and has even included the Qudini logo within their order email to educate customers as to how the service works (as shown in the image to the right.
More collection check-ins via order confirmation email vs signage
Retailers using Qudini to offer contactless collections find that most customers will check-in from the order confirmation email rather than using the signs at the front of the parking bay. The ease of clicking the link while remaining in their cars makes it the faster and simpler option.
Examples of order confirmation email
Currys PC World confirmation email
Signage types and locations:
Contactless collection examples:
End of parking bay placard
End of parking bay lollipop.
Parking bay – Painted or vinyl sticker
Stand out in winter
For outdoor signage remember to think about how dark it can get in the winter month and how you can keep our signage lit up.
Inform customers to check-in for their orders using
Simple sign
Flyers on customers parcels
Closed store sign with click and collect call to action.
If you are using the Qudini Self-service Kiosk App to enable your customers to join the queue, check-in for online orders or to book appointments you will also need to clearly sign post your this to drive customers to use it.
Most clients find it works to include similar signage with a very clear call to action around it and at times additional information to support the customer’s journey.
Kiosk locations
Place your kiosk in the footpath of the customers you want to use it, including: the front of the relevant service area, near a queue barrier, in front of a relevant service desk, at the store entrance, near the staircase.
If a kiosk is placed near the counter, your customers will likely request the help of your staff first, unless the staff are unavailable or the customer has been previously educated on the process.
Inspiration: client example (for click and collect)
We love how Pets At Home have included a flyer on all customer parcels to inform them that next time they visit they can use their contactless collection option from their car park.
The content varies a little from their signage in the car park in that it addresses the customer with a question and provides a detailed step by step process to the customer alongside an image showing how the service works.
Make your host stand out
If you are using a host to enable customers to join the queue or to book appointment from a tablet or reception desk it helps to make them visually stand-out from your other colleagues, so that:
a) Customers can easily find them and are educated as to their purpose,
b) Host have a fixed meeting point and process,
c) Customers understand the host has a different role and don’t request service from them (which can be a common challenge),
d) Customer experience is consistent across stores,
Our clients are using one of multiple of the following methods to ensure their host stands out to customers.
Create a customer education video
Some of our clients have even created educational customer-facing videos and adverts to advertise their new service offering to their customers while informing them of the ease of booking the service using Qudini.
Currys PC World (international electronics retailer) created this “Collect Your Tech” video which explains their new drive through collection offering and features Qudini 28 seconds in.
Inform customers using your website
In this next section we will suggest how you can inform customers about your in-store services used to perfect their experience using your website.
Starting with your:
Service information page
Create one single landing page to explain all the services you offer to improve your customer’s experience, as well as an individual landing page on each service.
This will ensure you realize the SEO benefit if customers search your brand name and service. Eg. QDi Virtual Queue
Mention the service on your individual store pages
On each store’s individual website page provide customers with more information about the service you offer for appointments, virtual queuing and contactless pickup.
Mention your services in your social media posts
To drive customers to your stores you might also look to create social media posts featuring your new service offering or mention your service offering in your general social media posts.
Final content tips
It’s now time to create your signage, but before you do, here are a few final tips consolidated from our pack.
Customers don’t read details.
So minimize text, keep Call To Actions loud and clear and have a cadence of additional text in order of relevance so that your customers can read more if they want to. If you do need to explain things in more detail, break it up into sequential steps, ideally following the power of 3.
Explain the benefit.
Always answer the “Why” – why should customers follow the process? What’s in it for them? Write your value proposition from the outset and tease this out within your signage content.
Nudge customers with images.
Use images to visually explain the process and to nudge customers towards your desired actions.
Verbs speak louder than all other words.
Make your signage clear and authoritative from the first word a customer reads by using action words to drive customers to action: book, join, check-in.
Triage using questions if you need to.
If your signage only needs to strike the attention of specific customers, use questions to triage the ones you want to speak to.
Vary your font formatting.
Draw attention to your sign and highlight key messages using different font styles, size, widths and coloring.
Address customer problems.
If some customers might have problems or queries when following the process (such as not having a mobile phone or wanting to know how their data will be used), address these at the bottom of the sign.
Make them match, but also differ.
If you are using Qudini for multiple customer journeys, have some consistency in the style, content and tone of voice within your signage but also make them visually different through different images, coloring and wording.
Try out numbers, symbols and punctuation.
Using numbers, symbols and punctuation can help to draw customer attention towards your sign. E.g. Did you know….?
For more info click here to download our full guide to signage.
